


Normalcy's Light

by sadifura



Category: Final Fight (Video Game), Street Fighter
Genre: Addiction, Gen, Mental Health Issues, Platonic Relationships, Poor Life Choices, mentions of cutting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:33:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26981443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sadifura/pseuds/sadifura
Summary: He knows this wouldn't last long.But he basks in the glow of normalcy's light anyway.Or, how Cody started systematically ruining his life.
Relationships: Cody Travers & Lucia Morgan
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	Normalcy's Light

**Author's Note:**

> so. i think im the only one who can portray cody right. also he has bpd like me and has an addictive personality like me and is so bad at stopping himself from doing bad impulsive things that he systematically ruins his life, also like me.
> 
> basically im projecting on someone who's only like me in the sense we both have the social skills and charisma of a rock and we have horrible mental health issues that need therapy but have never gotten PROPER therapy
> 
> i do not own cody, final fight, lucia morgan, or street fighter

It’s April, 20XX. Mad Gear had been decimated; so had the Skull Cross Gang, and any other miscellaneous gang that cropped up in Metro City.

“Jessica, I’m going out.”

“Okay, Cody!” Jessica chirped, not knowing a shred of what Cody was going to do at all.

Punch.

Slam.

Crack.

Crunch. Some random dude’s jaw hit the ground, looking like it shattered on impact. Cody wanted more.

Punch.

Slam.

Crack.

Crunch. This guy’s head got smashed in. It looks like a crushed Coke can. Cody felt the tension in his throat rise until he wanted to scream.

Punch.

Slam.

Crack.

Crunch. Cody’s scratching his arms now, a nervous habit that started ever since he got addicted to fighting. He didn’t know how that happened, but all he wants to see is blood. Even his own.

Not again, he thought. If you scratch your arms like that, you’ll start wanting to cut and then you’ll have to make Jessica hide the knives and she’ll treat you like a burden that you definitely are. He knows Mike Haggar, her own dad and some semblance of one he had, treated him like a burden when the cutting habit was around.

Good thing he replaced it with fighting, he thought again, wandering around the streets for some other rando to punch and slam into the ground. Cutting is way girly. It’s something only teenage girls with daddy issues do, not a grown man with a girlfriend like you. Fighting people is more macho, more suitable for someone who was always meant to be a thug.

Cody saw this random teenager. He looked strong. His heart began to race. He had to beat him up he had to punch him in the face he had to---

Or else he’d get the sick feeling in his stomach and want to hurt himself again.

Cody started up to the teenage boy, not noticing him at all. 

Wham!

Cody started out with a solid uppercut, sending the kid flying. Pretty epic special move if you asked him.

The teenage boy looked at him with the largest amount of fear a 5’2 teenage boy could muster, and cried out, “Look, if you want money, I’ll give you all my allowance! It’s not much, but---”

Cody pulled the teen up by his collar and looked him straight in the eye. He wasn’t even sure if he was doing it himself or some fight demon was possessing him, but he groaned out, in a voice that barely sounded like his own, “Don’t need it.”

Cody began to bash the teenage boy on the nose. Bam! Bam! Bam! He was barely in control of his body now; he felt like some puppet, and this guy was controlling him with strings or magic or something weird.

Bam! Bam! Bam! He kept hitting him. He didn’t know why. He kept hitting him. He didn’t know why. He kept hitting him. He kept hitting him. He kept hitting him, until---

“Police!”

Oh no. 

Oh no he’s gonna get arrested isn’t he he’s gonna get arrested and go to jail and Jessica’s gonna abandon him and---

Oh God the kid’s face is all bleeding and messed up oh no oh no he wanted to cry so bad but the tears are coming out in gross ugly sobs instead of pretty ones and---

“Cody? Mister Travers?”

Oh no. Of all the people to catch him in the act, it was the cop in training and self proclaimed savior of justice Lucia Morgan to catch him.

He looked up at Lucia, and probably had the most pathetic look on his face if he could see himself right now, and blubbered “I did-didn’t mean it,” snot coming out of his nose and making his “mean” sound like “mead” and wow he sounded pathetic and childish.  
Instead of anger, the kinda righteous, just anger one would expect from someone who deifies justice like Lucia, however, what he got was pity.

“Oh...Mister Travers. Don’t worry, these things can happen.”

She lifted him off the ground (that girl was always stronger than him, even before that weird “Speed and Weight” training program she decided to embark on), putting Cody to his feet. She then picked up the scared, injured teen and put him in her police-issued vehicle. “Don’t worry, little guy. This little idiot here just likes to pummel little guys like you for fun.” She then took Cody by his shoulder, as he was spaced out of his mind, and walked him home.

“Lucia, I---” Cody began to say, but Lucia stopped him. 

“I know about your little condition. Mike---I mean, Mister Haggar told me you had a bad habit like this in your teens, so I’m empathetic.”

He felt his face get hot. Haggar told Lucia about the cutting? He...he told her about how bad it would get?

“The truth is, I was out here tonight to watch out for you. Mister Haggar is worried about you, you know. Why else would I be patrolling? I’m not even assigned to go out on a Friday.”

Cody wanted to punch something right now. He wanted to punch Lucia, to punch Haggar, to punch himself for even starting that stupid cutting habit in the first place. That’s why he’s so obsessed with beating people up. That’s why he’s so addicted to everything that he gets his hands on.

But he was tired, so tired he wanted to sleep. And he said to Lucia, after she walked him to the front of the door, “Please don’t tell Jessica about this.”

She lifted a finger to her lips. “She won’t suspect a thing!”

As he watched Lucia walk away, Cody thought to himself. He thought, “I better stop this. I better stop this before I lose Jessica and make my life a living hell.”

And then he thought of something else. “Even if I wanted to stop, God knows I couldn’t.”

As he opened the door, and Jessica happily greeted him, Cody closed his eyes. 

He knows this wouldn’t last long.

But he basks in the glow of normalcy’s light anyway.


End file.
